extract specific text out of htm / text file into filemaker

linus4200 · February 5, 2003, 12:12pm

To all who might help

I’m a newbie on applescript,

idea : extract specific information out of html file / code store it into
respective field in database.

ex. fruit search engine web-page

1 you introduce what you seeking ex. apple

2 executing search

3 getting result page (with for ex fields like:
color,size, price, etc…)

the results you see it in the result page in the browser, now to extract the results I assume you have to use html source code

4 defining position of every field ( by the text
that is in front and behind the field. ex
color,that means the expession in the source
code that is in front of the color and behind)

5 the so identified color store it in color field
of your database and proceed with the next
field.

SHORT : EXTRACT X-FIELDS OUT OF A WEB-PAGE TO BE
STORED IN CORRESPONDENT FIELD OF DATABASE

THX for having a look I hope it’s more or less clear

Linus

:idea:

julifos · February 5, 2003, 5:54pm

You need three tools and a little of effort: AppleScript installed ( :lol: ), URL Access Scripting & Filemaker.
Also, you can substitute URL Access Scripting for a web browser, but theorically you don’t need it.
Step 1. “Download” the web page with results from a search query. Look at URL Access Scripting dictionary. You should see a command called “download” with several parameters. You can download an URL such as “http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=apple”, which will give you a HTML page with the results of searching “apple” at Google.
Step 2. “Read” this web page. You can find some useful commands within “Standard Additions”’ terminology: open for access, read, close access.
Step 3. Extract the info you’re looking for from this text and enclose it into variables, for later use.
Step 4. Put this info within your FM db (this is easy; look at FM’s dictionary).

If you need some detailed info about any particular question, this is your site!

julifos · February 5, 2003, 9:28pm

the problem I have is once I have the html / text file created that I don’t know how to extract specific info and to store it into a field lets say filemaker.

here an example of html code

"
First closing date 19 Jun 1985 Maturity date(*) 16 May 2010 Code creation date 16 May 1991 Last update date 27 Dec 2002
" this is part of the html file

now how to get out of this the information about “maturity date”
and to store it in filemaker field maturity date

which is that case would be 16 May 2010

I thougt the way to do this is as I know the specific expression in front of the date and after this could be used to determine here what is the maturity date.

now the problem I don’t have the minor idea how this could be done with applescript nor if applescript can do this

AppleScript defines several properties & command to work with strings. You can extract from a given text its “word 1” or its “character 6”, or a bunch of text “characters 1 thru 8”.
Also, you can determine the position of a given string into a long text offset of “text” in “Hello, text!” (which will return “8”… character 8 is “t”).
So, if we call “html_code” to the text you’ve posted:

set x to (offset of "Maturity date(*)</strong></td> 
<td class='secdb'>" in html_code) + 50
set y to (offset of " </td> 
</tr> 
<tr height="3">" in html_code) - 1

set maturity_date to text from character x of html_code to character y of html_code
--> "16 May 2010"

I sum 50 to x because I don’t want include that string into my calculation. 50 is the length of “Maturity date(*)</str…”.
And I rest 1 to y because I don’t want include “&” into the string…

Now, set the value of a FM’s field may be easy:

tell application "FileMaker Pro"
	set cell "maturity" of record 54 of database 1 to maturity_date
end tell

Basically.

linus4200 · February 6, 2003, 12:04pm

thx a lot

I think I follow your idea, I try the script
and I’m sure I made small mistake it says
the variable html_code is not defined.
How can I tell the script to find the string in a
specific html file in a specific folder ??

thx for all help

linus

julifos · February 6, 2003, 1:10pm

You should read the file. If it’s located, eg, at “HD:Web Pages:file.html”:

set html_file to alias "HD:Web Pages:file.html"
set file_ref to (open for access html_file)
set html_code to (read file_ref)
close access file_ref

Now, the html code (simple text) is enclosed into the variable “html_code”, and you can manipulate it.

linus4200 · February 6, 2003, 3:56pm

me again

I’m using os x and the hd name is “mac - osx” and the name of the file “test.html”
I don’t know the syntax to use test.html in your last ex.

set html_file to alias “mac - osx:test.html”
set file_ref to (open for access html_file)
set html_code to (read file_ref)
close access file_ref

and I get all time an error

julifos · February 7, 2003, 2:04pm

Where is located “test.html”? If it is at root level, your alias will be:

alias "mac - osx:test.html".

If not, you can select the file in the Finder and run this code:

tell application "Finder"
	selection as alias
end tell

And it will return the path to the file.
Also, if you work with any script editor different than Apple’s “Script Editor” (Smile, freeware, http://www.satimage.fr/software/en/softx.html; or Script Debugger, shareware, http://www.latenightsw.com/) you can drag & drop any file into a script window and the path will be automatically placed at the window…